Anti-Terrorism Measures Cause Privacy Concerns

28 March 2006 - 3:00pm

"People choose to live in outposts like Dillingham (pop. 2,400)...to be left alone. So eyebrows were raised in January when the first surveillance cameras went up on Main Street....Now the residents of this far-flung village have become, in one sense, among the most watched people in the land, with -- as former Mayor Freeman Roberts puts it -- 'one camera for every 30 residents'...Some don't mind, but many others are furious and have banded together to force the city to take the cameras down."

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"Two idling trucks, two rolled-down windows, two men swapping news in the middle of the street. It's a common scene in town. 'Watch out. Osama's going to get you,' Roberts says. 'Big Brother's going to get you first,' says the other skipper, Dennis Johnson."

A small town's residents are the "most watched people in the nation."

"People choose to live in outposts like Dillingham (pop. 2,400)...to be left alone. So eyebrows were raised in January when the first surveillance cameras went up on Main Street....Now the residents of this far-flung village have become, in one sense, among the most watched people in the land, with -- as former Mayor Freeman Roberts puts it -- 'one camera for every 30 residents'...Some don't mind, but many others are furious and have banded together to force the city to take the cameras down."

"Two idling trucks, two rolled-down windows, two men swapping news in the middle of the street. It's a common scene in town. 'Watch out. Osama's going to get you,' Roberts says. 'Big Brother's going to get you first,' says the other skipper, Dennis Johnson."

Source: Los Angeles Times, Mar 28, 2006